Imagine going to an ice hockey game and not leaving until almost nine hours later. Now that's commitment!

A meeting between Storhamar Dragons and Sparta Warriors in the Norwegian ice hockey play-offs took eight periods of overtime to reach a conclusion, although tennis' marathon man John Isner remained unimpressed.

The GET-ligaen clash - thought to be the longest in history - was eventually settled by Joakim Jensen, who secured a 2-1 win for Storhamar after 217 minutes and 14 seconds of action, more than eight and a half hours after the game had begun.

Stormahar lead the best-of-seven series 3-2 and, after the game finished at around 02:30 local time on Monday, both sets of players will need a well-earned rest before the sixth instalment on Tuesday.

Upon hearing of the epic encounter, Isner was moved to recall his record-breaking meeting with Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon in 2010, in which the American prevailed 70-68 in the final set, after 183 games played over 11 hours and five minutes across three days.

Storhamar and Sparta's exploits prompted Isner to respond, jokingly referring to the encounter as "child's play" in a tweet to Mahut.